Lamp-door fastening



June l5 1926.

C. E. GODLEY LAMP DOOR FASTENING 4 Patented June 15, 1926.

PORATION, OF DETROIT, MCI-IIGAN,

-LUNITED srAre-s raran'r `nariciis..

CHARLES E. GODLEY, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, SSIG-NOR T0 EDMUNDS & COR- A. CORPORATON OF NEJV YORK.

LAMP-noon ,rasrn'mnce Application le'd December My invention relates to means for connecting a detachable door or lens front to the body of a lam-p, and for this purpose aims to provide simple and easily manipulated fastening means which will yieldingly press the door inwardly of the lamp body to afford a tight seal between the reflector and the lensv of the lamp, and which will positively force the door 'off the' lamp body when the fastening means are/manipulated for releasing the door.

Furthermore, my invention provides a construction' of this general type which can readily be applied'y to lamp doors of standard types and which will only requirev simple lugs or ears upon the lamp body. It also provides a door fastening arrangement in which the portionsk carried by the door can be made so` small as to` be comparatively inconspicuous, in' whichthesel portions can be assembled as units before attaching the same to the door, in which this attaching can easily be accomplished by merely providing suitable lateral perforations in the door, and' in which asingle and simple auxiliary fas.v

tening element will suffice for rigidly securing each such assembled unit to the door.

Still vfurther and also` more detailedob-` jects will appear from the following specification and' from the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. l is a'- front elevation of an automobile head light equipped with fastening means embodyingV my invention. y

Fig. 2' is an enlarged and fragmentary section taken radially and longitudinally of the lamp along the line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a similar section taken when the' screw is almost entirely unscrewed from theV adjacent lug orv earon the lamp body and showing how the door is pushed off the lamp body.

Fig. t is a fragmentary section through the door of the lai-mp, taken along in the same r radial plane asl Fig. 2. with the attaching unit shown in elevation in a position occupied by it while it is being attached to the door.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of theI shell of oney of the attaching units. p

Fig; 6 is a similarly enlarged bottom view ofthis shell.`

Fig. 7 is a similarly enlarged section taken along the line 7 7 of Fig; 3 through one 11, 1925. serieu` No. 74ers.

of the attaching units and the adjacent peripheral wall of the lamp door.

ln the illustrated lamp", the body includes a peripheral wall 1 provided at its forward end with an inwardly directed flange or shelf 2 upon which the edge flange 3 of the reflector 4: is seated, and this reflector is providedy at its mouth with an annular groove 5 into which a packing' ring 6 iscemented. 'The door of the lamp includes a lens 7 gripped between the inner edge of the frontal portion- 8 of a lens ring and clamping lingers 9'secured to the. inner or rear face of this frontalportion. The peripheral part 10 of this lens ring is recurved at its rear end to provide a relatively short annular portion 11 of a bore corresponding to the outside diameter of the peripheral body wall 1 andv hence Y suitable perforation in this wall, and' having its inner portion 12A extend rearwardly, and welding this portion 12A to the said wall.l

These ears constitute fastening elements on the lamp body for cooperatingwith yieldingly mounted screws 13 supportedz by the door of the lamp, each of these screws being slidably mounted in a screw guide secured to the peripheral wall 10 ofthe' lens ring. As here illustrated, each screw guide is formed of a single piece of sheet metal which has its medial' part bent `into a tubular portion 14' having' a bore slidably fitting the head 13A of the screw mounted in that guide, and

having its rear end contracted to' afford' a ledge 15 of a bore slightly largerv than the diameter of the shank ofthe screw. The tubular portion 14 desirably extends for more than 180 degrees about the axis ofthe screw and-the free end parts 16 of the metall Each of these'- f I tance between the oppositely directed faces' of the arms 16. Each of these arms has at its forward end and adjacent to the tubular portion 14 a notch 18 corresponding approximately to the thickness of the lens ring wall 10, and each arm tapers in length t0- wards its free end substantially along an arc having the bottom of the notch 18 as its center, while the length of each arm 1G ad jacent to the tubular portion 14 corresponds to the length of the said perforation 17.

lith the screw guide thus constructed, the arms can be inserted through the adjacent perforation 17 by initially tilting the guide and permitting the notch 1S to hook into the forward edge of the perforation, as shown in Fig. 4. rlhe guide is then swung about its said hooking engagement with the lens ring to dispose the axis of the tubular portion 14 parallel to the axis of the lamp and to cause the rear outer ends of the arms 16 to seat on the rear wall of the said perforation, after which the guide is secured in this position by inserting a spring cotter 19 which extends through alined perforations 2O in the arms 16 and which engages the inner face of the peripheral lens ring wall 10.

interposed between the head 13A of each screw and the rear end ledge 15 of the corresponding guide is a compression spring 2l. which continually urges the screw forwardly of the lamp or away from the adjacent ear. Extending transversely through the shank of each screw behind the guide is a stop member, such as a spring cotter 2i, which is disposed for engaging the rear end of the guide to limit the forward movement of the screw when the screw is unscrewed either entirely, or at least to a considerable extent from the adjacent ear 12 through which the screw is threaded when the door is attached.

Vvlhen the door is detached, this cotter 22 prevents the screw from being ejected by the associated spring, so that the screw will not be lost. In attaching the door, this is slipped upon the lamp body with the screw guides in alinement with the ears and the sc 1ews are then tightened, the guides being desirably of such a length that each screw head projects beyond its forward end when the screw is loose, so as to make the screw easier to reach with a screwdriver. During the tightening of each screw, this rotates freely until the lens engages the packing ring G on the reflector, the location of thc ears and guides being such that this engagement occurs when each guide is still at a considerable distance from the ear alined with it. Then a further rotation of the screw in its a taching direction compresses he spring 21, the packing ring prevents a further rearward movement of the door. This compression continues until the cotter 22 (which in effect is a lateral projection on the shank of the screw) engages the ear 12. By suitably proportioning the parts, I cause this stopping of the attaching movement of the screw to occur while the spring is only partially compressed, thereby causing the door to be yieldingly clamped to the lamp body and permitting the springs to comu pensate for variations in the thickness of the lens, the compression of the packing ring and the exact assembly of the guides and ears with respect to the lamp parts which carry these. n practice, the screws, springs and stop cotters 19 can be assembled with the screw guides as units (after the manner shown in Fig. 4) before attaching .each such assembly to the door, thereby facilitating the assembling and permitting a single size of such attaching units to be used eco nomically with lamp doors of various sizes and types. v

However, while I have illustrated and described my invention in an embodiment including a screw guide formed of a single piece of sheet metal, l do not wish to bc limited to this or other details of the construction and arrangement here disclosed, it being obvious that many changes might be made without departing either from the spirit of my invention or from the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a lamp, a forwardly open casing, a door niovably disposed at the mouth of the casing, an ear projecting .radially outward from the casing adjacent to its mouth, a screw guide projecting radially outward from the door in front of the ear and in alinement with the ear longitudinally of the casing, a screw slidably mounted in the guide and threaded into the ear, a compression spring operatively interposed between the screw and the guide for urging the spring forwardly, means associated with the door and casing for limiting the rearward movement of the door with respect to thecasing to a position in which the guide is spaced from the ear, and stop means carried by the screw for engaging the ear to limit the threading of the screw into the ear to an extent insufficient for fully cornpressing the spring.

2. The combination with a lamp casing, and with a door fitting the mouth of the casing and having a peripheral wall, of door fastening means, comprising an ear projecting outwardly from the casing adjacent to its mouth, a screw guide projecting outwardly from the door in alinement with the ear, a screw slidably mounted in the guide and threaded into the ear, a compression spring operatively interposed respec tively between the screw and the guide for urging the screw away from the ear, the guide having a pair of arms extending through the peripheral wall of the door and having a portion engaging the outer face of that wall, and a fastening element extending through the said arms and engaging the inner face of that wall.

3. A lamp construction as per claim 2, in which the peripheral door wall has a perforation through which the said arms are slidably insertible, and in which each arm is undercut at one edge to provide a hooking engagement with a part of the said wall adjacent to the perforation.

4. A lamp construction as per claim l, in which the door has a peripheral wall provided with a perforation in longitudinal alinement with the ear on the casing; and in which the screw guide is constructed of a single piece of sheet metal formed to afford a peripherally incomplete tubular portion and a pair of arms both extending through the said perforation. the tubular portion havinga forward part slidably housing the head of the screw and having at its rear end a ledge engaged by one end of the spring.

5. A lamp construction as per claim l, in which the stop means are also disposed for engaging the guide upon incomplete unscrewing of the screw from the ear, so as to limit the forward movement of the screw with respect to the guide by the spring and so as to cause the stop means to force the door forwardly away from the ear during the completion of the unscrewing of the screw from the ear.

Signed at Detroit, ldichigan, December 3,

CHARLES E. GODLEY. 

